Letter: Correcting the record on group homes

Comment

The State Journal-Register

Writer

Posted Jul. 31, 2014 at 10:07 PM

Posted Jul. 31, 2014 at 10:07 PM

I wish to take strong exception to Jim White’s recent letter objecting to group homes for persons with developmental disabilities because “they lower the property value of neighboring homes” (“Objects to group home location,” July 29).

First of all, his statement that most of the homes are run for profit is absolutely false. Almost all of them are owned or leased by non-profit community agencies that are under strict regulations and funding by state agencies.

In addition, no studies have indicated that property values are affected by the presence of group homes. There are state rules that prohibit the clustering of such homes, and none of them can be within a quarter mile of another.

I was around when the state-operated Lincoln Developmental Center had over 5,000 residents. Now that might affect property values, but not the small, community homes that blend in with the surrounding neighborhood.

Don Moss

Springfield

The writer is executive director of United Cerebral Palsy of Illinois.